Ordinary Time week 5

Psalm: Psalm 130 or Psalm 30
Old Testament: 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
  or Lamentations 3:23-33
  or Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15, 2:23-24
Gospel: Mark 5:21-43
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 8:7-15


Well the last week of June has come and gone if you can believe it. Of course we on the coast here are still under some June gloom and humidity. In our readings this week we continue in the same three places we have been in the last few weeks: the story of David, the Gospel of Mark, and 2 Corinthians.

I want to start with 2 Cor. because we haven't had the chance to discuss it the last few weeks. It is very difficult to read these 9 verses out of context. Even looking at the rest of chapter 8 doesn't really tell us what Paul is talking about. In order to make since of the "gracious work" Paul is talking about we have to look back at 1 Cor. 16:1-4. In Paul's closing remarks of that Epistle he asks the "holy ones," by which he means the people in the church, to raise money and bring it to their gatherings for the believers in Jerusalem. Paul was planning for him or his representatives to present a gift to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem from the churches in the rest of the Roman Empire. And we know that he was able to accomplish this mission from the book of Acts. But in our passage here in 2 Cor. 8, Paul is reminding them of the task he had set before them and urging them to be charitable and to actually desire that they would want to be charitable. Something might have happened in the church to stop them raising money, but Paul is reminding them that it is a good thing they are doing.

I think we can all relate to the people of Corinth a little bit. We are naturally greedy, and as time goes by we forget what where giving to and why were doing it in the first place. It is important to pray that we would be given a charitable heart. Ultimately Paul is hoping that the church in Corinth wouldn't just give to the believers Jerusalem because Paul guilts them into it, or they want something in return, but he really wants them to desire it out of their love for Jesus. This is definitely something we also can strive for and need to be reminding of.

I want to briefly make a comment also about the story we have from Mark 5. It is actually 1 healing miracle wrapped up in another one. Jesus crosses back to the other side of the Sea of Galilee which he had left before the calming of the storm. If you remember Jesus previously was teaching from a boat because they crowds were so long they were swarming him. So he goes back to the same place and a synagogue official asks if he would come with him to heal his daughter. As Jesus is going on his way with the official a lady suffering from 12 years of bleeding reaches out to touch just the hem of his cloak and is healed. I am sure we are all familiar with this story. We have to understand that the women was trying to protect both herself and Jesus. She was an unclean women, who was interrupting Jesus as he was going to help and important official. I can understand why she wouldn't go the normal route of just asking Jesus to heal her. Now wasn't a good time. Jesus clearly had more important people to help. Yet in her faith and just the mere fact of touching Jesus' clothes is enough to heal her.

We all know that Jesus talks to the women and that then the officials servants come and say his daughter has died since Jesus took too long to get there. Again, the women finds herself in that awkward place she didn't want to be in hoping she isn't the reason the girl died since she took Jesus' time. But Jesus still goes to the official's house and raising the little girl from the dead. He also tells no one to mention what he did. I have often wondered why he seems to tell people that a lot, especially in Mark. I think one answer may be, as we have seen the last few weeks, is that at this point Jesus was just so popular, at least as Mark tells the story. Everywhere Jesus went huge crowds followed him and there was no escape. Now imagine that people here he can raise the dead. Imagine the requests he would get to bring people back to life and maybe one day some one comes with their dead relative and lay the body at Jesus feet. It seems a bit silly, but clearly Jesus didn't want to broadcast too much at this point what he was doing. I'm sure there are many other aspects to this, but perhaps this is one reason.

Well, there is no time to discuss the reading from 2 Samuel or the Psalm, and I am left wondering what this story from Mark has to do with our reading from 2 Cor. Paul is telling us to pray for and to actually be a charitable giver, and Jesus performs miracles of healing. We have already discussed the desire to be charitable and that is good. So we can leave that aside. What I get from Mark is that no person is too far gone or too much of an inconvenience for Jesus. The women who was healed had no right to be in the crowd, no right to defile everyone around. She had no right to stop the whole procession as they went with the important official to heal his daughter. But Jesus saw only a person in need of his healing and salvation. So he reached out and met the need. Same thing for the daughter; she was as far gone as one could be-dead. But Jesus reached out, called to her, and brought her back to new life in him. No one is too far gone for the love of Christ! That is a powerful idea to think about.

This week let us practice charity and love. Let us live into the life God has called us in Christ.

Grace and Peace.